SW Geography Conference 2024

Introduction

This year's free Geography Southwest conference took place at the University of West of England (UWE) on Monday 17 June 2024. Over 75 teachers attended the free event which included four lectures, six workshops and an exhibition area with displays from publishers and educational providers.

The SW Geography conference is a collaborative event organised by Geography Southwest in association with the RGS-IBG and the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE).

Programme

The lecture programme covered several topical and relevant themes including the GAs curriculum framework, the causes, impacts and solutions related to storm overflows, urban regeneration and the National Education Nature Park. The six workshops, with practical elements and case studies were led well-known individuals within their field.  Highlights of the programme are summarised below. Links to presentations from the conference will be added soon.

Keynote lectures:

Rebecca Kitchen (Head of Professional Development, GA) The GA's Curriculum Framework: classroom implications. 

Rebecca outlined the GA’s curriculum framework and considered how it might be best used to strengthen geographical knowledge in the classroom. She emphasised the importance of applying geographical knowledge and conceptual progression throughout the curriculum. This was particularly evident from mapping outdoor activities and skills development across the secondary age range from KS3 to A level. Rebecca's presentation set the scene for later lectures and workshops, and delegates referred back to Becky’s comments on several occasions throughout the day.

Matt Wheeldon (Director of Infrastructure Development at Wessex Water) Storm overflows: causes, impacts and solutions. 

Matt introduced his lecture by highlighting how ‘Sewage dumping’ makes great headlines. He then explored what is really happening, including how storm overflows arise, what impact they have on environmental and public health and how different solutions have a variety of wider consequences. He challenged delegates to think about misconceptions that appear in the media. There was a lively discussion about possible solutions to the problems, both at local and national scale. 

Dr Andy Tallon (UWE) Changing Places: Urban Regeneration in Bristol.

Andy focussed on Bristol as a case study of urban regeneration. He began by providing an overview of its urban geography and then looked at various urban regeneration issues. He highlighted some of the innovative examples of practice within the city but also showed how areas away from the Harbourside and Waterfront developments had missed out. He concluded with an update on the current projects around the Temple Meads area. Several schools use Bristol as a case study and Andy also suggested that teachers contacted him for support with fieldwork within the city.

Dr Katie Hall (ESRI) Developing geospatial skills through the National Education Nature Park.

The National Education Nature Park empowers children and young people to explore, map and improve their education settings for both people and wildlife. Katie showed how GIS can be used to collect and analyse habitat and biodiversity data in and around school grounds, and also used examples she had collected herself at lunchtime in UWE. In her lively and relevant talk, she showed how teachers and their students could not only learn vital digital skills in the immediate school area, but also contribute to the National Education Nature Park by uploading their data for other to see. On a hot and sunny day, her examples of creating a shade index for the school site were very topical. The data collection could also involve collaboration between older and younger students, and between kS2 and KS3 students as part of induction to the school site and geography. 

Workshops

Dr Liam Saddington (Teaching Associate in Human Geography, University of Cambridge) Climate Justice and Young People: Bringing Year 9 Fieldwork into the 21st Century.

Liam focused on newly created educational materials for supporting Year 9 geography. Through a collaboration with local schools, the University of Cambridge has been developing a new scheme of work to support the teaching of human geography of climate change exploring topics around climate justice. It also includes material for running local fieldwork on climate justice. IN this interactive workshop, Liam encouraged teachers to discuss their own ideas and see how they could help pupils to develop a wider understanding of climate change and appropriate fieldwork at KS3.

Neil Watson (Coastal Engineer, Environment Agency) Coastal change: the Moors at Arne, Dorset.

Neil's presentation looks back 10,000 years across The Moors at Arne in Dorest coastal managed realignment site to illustrate the story of natural sea level fluctuations, and highlight the challenges from rising sea levels for people living around Poole Harbour over the next 100 years. His workshop included several teaching ideas to support this case study and various resources that could be accessed.

Darren Bailey (Education Manager, Ordnance Survey) Using primary and secondary data sources within GIS

Darren's interactive, hands-on workshop had everyone involved from the outset in a very busy run through of how Digimap for Schools can use primary and secondary data to create geolocated maps.  Teachers were able to see how mobile devices could be used to collect data and then use GIS to display the information.

Professor Jenny Brown (Coastal Oceanographer, National Oceanography Centre) Using coastal observations to engage students and promote careers in oceanography.

Jenny's workshop focussed on how online coastal monitoring data can be used to develop skills in science, technology, engineering, maths and geography. She focussed on examples from the Devon and Cornwall coast and their use to support GCSE and A level geography. Jenny also looked at careers in oceanography.

Tom Humphreys (Deputy Head, Skern Lodge) Promoting student wellbeing in geography fieldwork.

Tom looked at how we support student geographers to ‘feel good’ when they’re conducting practical fieldwork particularly with the growing emphasis placed upon education leaders to support young people’s wellbeing alongside academic attainment. He used examples from his experiences as a Fieldwork Tutor at a residential field centre looking at both research conducted by the University of Exeter and a collection of candid student testimonials to critically consider how fieldwork influences how young people feel.

Carla De Laurentis (Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management, University of West of England) When the wind turbines stop: opportunities and challenges for the management of end of life of wind turbines.

As many wind farms start to reach their end of technical or consent life, an emerging environmental sustainability issue is what to do with wind farms at the end of their life. Carla presented newly created education material that focuses on wind energy and the challenges we are facing with the management of the end-of-life of wind turbines. The workshop looked at the different end-of-life decisions and how these can influence options of waste management as alternatives to landfill.

Exhibition

Delegates were able to visit several exhibition stands provided by educational publishers, organisations and field work providers during the conference, with many providing free resources and links to teaching materials.

The SW Geography conference is a collaborative event organised by Geography Southwest in association with the RGS-IBG and the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE).